FIFA asked to expand World Cup to 48 teams for Qatar in 2022


BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — FIFA was asked by South American soccer’s governing body on Thursday to expand the World Cup to 48 teams for the 2022 tournament in Qatar.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who gained approval last year to increase the number of teams from 32 to 48 from the 2026 tournament, received the request from CONMEBOL to hasten the expansion while attending the confederation’s congress.

A formal letter was handed to Infantino signed by CONMEBOL President Alejandro Dominguez and the region’s 10 member associations.

Qatar currently has plans to build eight stadiums, whereas bidders for the 48-team 2026 tournament have been told they need 12 venues.

One option to accommodate the additional games, rather than further straining the requirements on Qatar, would be to share games in the Gulf.

Qatar won the FIFA vote in 2010 with a vision of the World Cup benefiting the Middle East but with all the games in the small desert nation. Hopes of a unifying tournament for the region were eroded when Qatar’s neighbors, including Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, cut diplomatic ties last year.

Even amid the escalating tensions, Qatar World Cup organizing committee secretary general Hassan al-Thawadi did not rule out last year the possibility of sharing matches with neighbors.

“Qatar has always been open to dialogue,” Al Thawadi told The Associated Press. “It’s always been open and it’s always supported our brother nations, to the extent that if (sharing the World Cup) was the ultimate goal, all that would have required was a simple conversation.”

https://apnews.com/90e1c9392f3e4115a45cb102ad77f90b

This still seems like a joke

Two bad jokes: A World Cup in Qatar, and a 48-team World Cup.

(04-12-2018 05:16 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Two bad jokes: A World Cup in Qatar, and a 48-team World Cup.

The number of teams I don't mind too much even though it's a bit ridiculous.

The event being held in Qatar is a travesty.

I'm convinced the people at FIFA are about as corrupt as they come.

There are certain nations that have enough pull and revenue to forget FIFA's edition of the World Cup and create their own tournament on their own terms.

I doubt there are any who have the balls to do that, but that's the only solution I see to the FIFA problem.

The 48 team format will be a joke. They're going to have 16 groups of 3 teams each with the top 2 in each group advancing to the knockout stage. And to solve the problem of teams in the last game in each group conspiring to reach the result that would allow both to advance at the expense of the third team in the group, they're proposing that no group stage games end in a draw, with penalties to be taken if the game is tied after the 90 minute regulation time.

The corruption in FIFA would play into that as well... certain teams would get a 3-team group out of which they are guaranteed to advance, others would get a group with 3 of the 20 best teams out of which only 2 teams can advance. As an example, look at the suspiciously easy group that Russia received for the 2018 World Cup. Rigging the group stage draw would affect the final outcome even more with 3 team groups instead of 4.

As for an alternative to FIFA - there was an idea several years ago that Europe and South America would band together to organize a tournament, and that if Europe and South America abandoned FIFA's World Cup, every other serious contender would as well. Nothing ever came out of that, though. Realistically, the powers-that-be who control these things in Europe and South America probably have their hands in the FIFA pie as well and have no incentive to break away.

Talks on exploring a 48-team World Cup in 2022 have been taken off the agenda at FIFA's annual congress Wednesday.

FIFA says a request to start a feasibility study into adding 16 teams to the Qatar-hosted tournament has been withdrawn by South American body CONMEBOL.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino says his staff will continue talks with Qatar about potential expansion.
Infantino has been enthusiastic about seeking agreement for an expanded event.

A 48-team World Cup would require extra stadiums and could lead to Qatar sharing hosting duties with Middle East neighbors.
Qualifying games for the 2022 World Cup are likely to begin in early 2019.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/90minutes/...story.html

Wedge: Russia’s group is easy because FIFA states the host gets into pot 1 which means they avoid the 7 highest ranked nations. That being said, I have them finishing 3rd in their group behind Uruguay and Egypt but in front of Saudi Arabia.

Qataris considering a 48-team option for 2022 World Cup


World Cup say they’re open to talks about a 48-team tournament, and can see a format to host it alone.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s wish to add 16 extra teams in 2022 was seen as pushing Qatar toward letting neighboring states into a co-hosting plan.

In Moscow last month, pressure on Qatar was eased when the Infantino-chaired FIFA Council agreed the host nation’s consent was a “precondition” for change.

https://soccer.nbcsports.com/2018/07/07/...world-cup/

I don’t understand why there would need to be 12 venues. With 48 first round games, the World Cup should use only eight venues. Of course this means the venues are hosting a match every day for 12 straight days, but there’s nothing that can prevent the stadiums from being cleaned overnight. Every one of the eight venues hosts matches for the Rounds of 32 and 16 and then consolidation can take place from there.

I'm not a huge fan of going to 48. I prefer expanding to 40 (if at all) before going to 48. If each 32-country World Cup expanded to 48 per the qualification bids allotted for the 2026 World Cup, excluding the countries that actually made each tournament, here are the countries that would have been in or gone to the playoffs (note that FIFA tiebreakers were used to determine certain spots):

*Australia was in the OFC for World Cup 1998, 2002, & 2006 before moving to the AFC.

1998
UEFA
Autobid - Ireland
Playoffs - Russia
CONMEBOL
Autobid - Peru
Playoffs - Ecuador
CONCACAF
Autobid - Costa Rica, El Salvador, Canada
Playoffs - Honduras
CAF
Autobid - Guinea, Egypt, Congo, Angola
Playoffs - Kenya
AFC
Autobid - China, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait
Playoffs - Uzbekistan
OFC
Autobid - Australia*
Playoffs - New Zealand

2002
UEFA
Autobid - Romania, Czechia
Playoffs - N/A
CONMEBOL
Autobid - Colombia
Playoffs - Bolivia
CONCACAF
Autobid - Honduras, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago
Playoffs - Guatemala
CAF
Autobid - Liberia, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Egypt
Playoffs - Angola
AFC
Autobid - Iran, UAE, Uzbekistan, Bahrain
Playoffs - Qatar, Iraq
OFC
Autobid - Australia*
Playoffs - New Zealand

2006
UEFA
Autobid - Norway, Slovakia
Playoffs - Turkey
CONMEBOL
Autobid - Uruguay, Colombia
Playoffs - Chile
CONCACAF
Autobid - Guatemala, Panama
Playoffs - Honduras
CAF
Autobid - Senegal, Cameroon, Nigeria, Morocco
Playoffs - Zambia
AFC
Autobid - Bahrain, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, North Korea
Playoffs - China
OFC
Autobid - Australia*
Playoffs - Solomon Islands

2010
UEFA
Autobid - Russia, Ireland, Ukraine
Playoffs - N/A
CONMEBOL
Autobid - Ecuador
Playoffs - Colombia
CONCACAF
Autobid - Costa Rica, El Salvador, Trinidad & Tobago
Playoffs - Jamaica
CAF
Autobid - Egypt Burkina Faso, Tunisia
Playoffs - Benin, Gabon
AFC
Autobid - Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar
Playoffs - Uzbekistan
OFC
Autobid - N/A
Playoffs - New Caledonia

2014
UEFA
Autobid - Ukraine, Romania, Sweden
Playoffs - N/A
CONMEBOL
Autobid - N/A
Playoffs - Venezuela, Peru
CONCACAF
Autobid - Panama, Jamaica
Playoffs - Guatemala
CAF
Autobid - Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ethiopia, Tunisia
Playoffs - Egypt
AFC
Autobid - Jordan, Uzbekistan, Oman, Qatar
Playoffs - Iraq
OFC
Autobid - New Zealand
Playoffs - New Caledonia

2018
UEFA
Autobid - Italy, Northern Ireland
Playoffs - Greece
CONMEBOL
Autobid - Chile
Playoffs - Paraguay
CONCACAF
Autobid - Honduras, United States, Trinidad & Tobago
Playoffs - Guatemala
CAF
Autobid - DR Congo, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Ivory Coast
Playoffs - Zambia
AFC
Autobid - Syria, UAE, Uzbekistan
Playoffs - China
OFC
Autobid - New Zealand
Playoffs - Solomon Islands

If that's how it would have gone in 2018, the 16 "extra teams" would have been 4 teams with a decent shot at making this year's knockout stage, and 12 teams with almost no shot.

Though in a 48 team World Cup with 16 groups, the "luck" of FIFA's group stage draw would get some teams of this weaker caliber through to the 32 team knockout stage that they will have with the 48 team format, while a few better teams get hosed by being drawn into a group of 3 high caliber teams.

I'm also curious in how the 16 groups will be made. I presume they'll follow similar rules to the 32-team format.

UEFA gets 16 bids, so 1 European country in each group. In years that a European nation hosts the World Cup, a European country will be allowed into the playoffs so there may be a group that ends up with 2 European countries. CONCACAF/CONMEBOL each get 6 + 1 to the playoffs. I wonder if they'll have a limit of 1 Americas country per group?

It will also be interesting to see if multinational hosts each get bids. My guess is that it will depend on how many countries are hosting and which countries are hosting. I can see why United States, Mexico, and Canada would all get autobids. I can see why, if ASEAN wins the 2034 bid, there would not be autobids for each nation - perhaps those host countries go into a separate tournament away from the AFC for a bid or two.

(07-09-2018 02:09 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  I'm also curious in how the 16 groups will be made. I presume they'll follow similar rules to the 32-team format.

FIFA's proposal is to have 16 groups of 3 teams each, with 2 teams in each group advancing to a 32 team knockout stage.

Won't be long until it's a 64 team tournament. Too much money to be made.

The purpose of the confederation tournaments is to narrow the participants for the World Cup. At some point, why do the confederation tournaments?

(07-09-2018 01:28 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  2018
UEFA
Autobid - Italy, Northern Ireland
Playoffs - Greece
CONMEBOL
Autobid - Chile
Playoffs - Paraguay
CONCACAF
Autobid - Honduras, United States, Trinidad & Tobago
Playoffs - Guatemala
CAF
Autobid - DR Congo, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Ivory Coast
Playoffs - Zambia
AFC
Autobid - Syria, UAE, Uzbekistan
Playoffs - China
OFC
Autobid - New Zealand
Playoffs - Solomon Islands

Just looking at 2018, and the added autobids, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Syria, Uzbekistan would have first ever World Cup.

Among the playoff teams, Solomon Islands, Guatemala and Zambia would be vying for first WC


2018 did mark the WC debut for Iceland and Panama

LOL, the US losing out to Panama.

BREAKING: FIFA have announced that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will take place between November 21st and December 18th.

They really wanna ensure no one in the US (except immigrants and their recent descendants) will watch, don't they?